Wednesday 6/25/2008- Saturday 6/28/2008
Our 15 minute flight to the island was a bit bumpy, but we made it there in one piece without getting sick. We got on the back of a pickup truck and packed all our stuff in another pickup truck and made our way to the lodge. We checked in to our lovely room which had a clean bed and a shower with hot water. Dermot had called ahead and arranged for a fruit basket and bottle of sparkling wine to be placed in the room. Katie did not notice it at first, but was to celebrate our two year anniversary with a bottle of bubbly.
We all headed out together for a quick tour of the island as a group. Back in the back of the pickup, we drove to the lighthouse and the local museum. We were all getting hungry so we then headed to a Lucas Restaurant for lunch. The food took a bit of time to arrive, but it was great…lots of local seafood, chicken and tasty local drinks. We then headed back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day lounging around the pool and relaxing. Dinner was at the hotel and a group of six men sang and danced for our entertainment. We were tired from our day of traveling, so we headed back to the room, watched Germany beat Turkey in the Euro 2008 competition and then fell asleep.
We woke up early the next morning to confirm a snorkeling trip that we would be taking that day. The tide schedule forced us to go out for a snorkel at 9:00 a.m. We ate breakfast as a group and then Lee, Jamie, Katie and Dermot headed out to do some snorkeling. The water was a bit colder than the women liked, so Lee and Dermot were the only two people to actually get in the water. A lot of the coral was dead, but there was a decent amount of fish in the water. After being to the Maldives, we think that all snorkeling is going to seem second rate. Lee and Dermot only stayed in the water for about 15 minutes and then we headed back to the resort. Our 2 hour snorkeling trip ended up only taking 40 minutes.
Back on land, we were greeted by the “government official” who told us to pay the ‘local tax’ for snorkeling, which would be 200Medicai each. We told him no, and we said the activity was complimentary from our hotel. He followed us, like a puppy to its owner back to the hotel, and our tour guide negotiated with him for over an hour. The government official claimed that since we cross the ‘line’ in the ocean into the government territory, we had to pay him. Rather humorous, since the government official was not on the boat and there was no ‘line’ anywhere by our snorkeling site. After loosing the fight, he attempted to charge us a tax for the museum yesterday. Classic. We were glad that there was a tour guide to deal this man’s antics.
The rest of the three days were spent lying out on the beach, swimming in the pool, eating delicious freshly caught seafood and watching some television. This trip was exactly what everyone wanted after working hard on the house for 9 days: lots of downtime and no set schedule.
We also celebrated Lee’s 55th birthday on our last night, as he’ll be celebrating on his 30+ hour flight back to Daytona Beach, FL. Happy birthday Lee!! We had an awesome time with our very diverse, yet all compatible Habitat group. We look forward to our reunion either on Lee’s sailboat, Jamie’s Mozambique Mansion…or Alex’s Halloween Party! Travel safely all of you! See you again soon!
Day 321- 324: Traveling through three countries to Zulu Battlegrounds